Highest fertility rate

Yemen (1985) with 8.86 babies per woman

Lowest fertility rate

South Korea (2020) with 0.81 babies per woman

Central Africa is the highest contributor of new births worldwide

Map showing the change in number of babies per woman over time across all countries of the world. The number of babies per woman was high (5-8) in most of the world in 1920, expept for North America, Europe and Australia. Over the course of a century, this number decreased in almost all countries, with central Africa being the region with the highest fertility rate.

Sub-Saharan Africa has double the fertility rate of America

Countries were grouped into six regions, and the number of babies per woman averaged per region by year. Although all six regions show a decrease in fertility rate from 1920 to 2020, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest average fertility rate.

Highest daily income

Brunei (1979) with 172.0 average daily income

Lowest daily income

Eswatini (1950) with 0.246 average daily income

Income remains low in central Africa over time

Map showing the change in income over time across all countries of the world. Notice that central Africa has the lowest change in income over the course of a century, while North America, Europe and Australia remain the countries with the highest income, with the addition of Gulf states starting around the late 1960s due to the oil industry. Note that the income scale limit is set to 30 for better visual comparison between Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. It is not meant to compare two high income countries, as any income above 30 will have the same color on the map.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the lowest average daily income

Countries were grouped into six regions and the daily income averaged per region by year. This plot shows the change in average income over time in six regions of the world. Income is shown to increase in some regions more than others, with Sub-Saharan Africa having the least increase in income.

High daily income (USD) is associated with low fertility rate

Data points were plotted regardless of which year they refer to (i.e. they are not in chronological order). The plot shows that there is a general trend where higher income is associated with a low number of babies per woman, regardless of historical time. Exceptions to this trend include Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE (Middle East & North Africa), Brunai (East Asia Pacific), and Equatorial Guinea (Sub-Saharan Africa).

Income and fertility rate move in opposite directions

The change in number of babies per woman over time was plotted alongside the change in daily income in each region. This figure shows that in almost all regions, as the daily income increases over the years, the number of babies per woman decreases. This trend can also be seen in Sub-Saharan Africa, though it is much less pronounced.

Combined dataset

Dataset with number of babies per woman, average daily income, and regions combined into a single dataset from which all figures were generated.

Combined Dataset
country country_code year income babies four_regions six_regions eight_regions
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Raw data

Data were downloaded from Gapminder at https://www.gapminder.org/data/. Specifically, you can find more information on each dataset and download the raw data using the following links:

Conclusions

Although Sub-Saharan Africa is highly rich in natural resources, it remains the region with the lowest average daily income over the course of a century. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, it has the highest number of babies per woman compared to any other region, a characteristic that many high-income regions are struggling with as low fertility rates are leading to an aging population.

More information here: - https://populationconnection.org/blog/high-fertility-sub-saharan-africa/ - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/02/the-global-fertility-crisis-are-fewer-babies-a-good-or-a-bad-thing-experts-are-divided